


Arrivals

by hathycol



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: Canon Het Relationship, Gen, Post-Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Racist Characters, Thor: Ragnarok (2017) Spoilers, almost certainly not canon after Infinity War comes out, no racist slurs are used
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-13
Updated: 2018-02-13
Packaged: 2019-03-17 19:45:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13666032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hathycol/pseuds/hathycol
Summary: Thor and the remaining Asgardians land on Earth. During Tony and Pepper's wedding reception.Actually, things go a little better than you'd think.(Written before the Infinity War trailer came out. Almost certainly not going to be canon once Infinity War comes out. I realised I didn't care.)





	1. an arrival (followed by others)

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this in one frantic day after Ragnarok came out and then debated posting it for months, occasionally tinkering with it. Then I decided I liked it enough to ignore that the Infinity War trailer had already made this non-canonical. Split into chapters for the ease of the reader who may be affected by the below content warning.
> 
> Content warning: chapter 2 contains some racism from white Americans to Heimdall and Valkyrie. It's overt, but no racist slurs are used. The good guys win, it's designed to written to ridicule white supremacists; I just genuinely wondered what the racist neo-pagans would make of Heimdall and Valkyrie turning up. You can skip chapter 2 this is likely to jar your enjoyment of the story.

_chapter 1 - an arrival (followed by others)_

"You _broke_ him."

"Technically, no. I just found him like this."

Tony stared again at the crouched, half-naked figure of Bruce Banner, who was clinging on a tuft of the grasses that made up verdant prairie of Oklahoma as though he suspected said prairies would shortly disappear. Tony looked at Thor, Thor's eyepatch and what looked an awful lot like an axe at his side. Tony glanced at the honest to god spaceship in the distance, and the crowds of people leaving the vehicle. Tony looked again at Bruce Banner, who was now keening gently and stroking the tuft of grass before glaring up again at Thor.

" _Space_ made him like this. _You_ are from space. Therefore, _you broke him_."

"You know, Stark, it's been a been a long and arduous journey. We've had miraculous escapes. I've brought vital knowledge to equip you in the battle that is to come. I promised my people - at a minimum - you would give them food and drink to celebrate their survival. And you complain?"

Tony sighed deeply. "Thor, buddy, this was not how I envisioned your return to Earth. Things are different. I _oh my god why is Loki here_."

Loki gave a brief wave. "Hello. You know, you always promise me a drink but it's never actually arrived."

"There is a wizard in New York who can safely entrap him," Thor said confidently. "He will attempt no mischief. Well," he amended, "he probably will, but I feel I know my brother much better now."

"Do you know," said Pepper, as Tony spluttered about wizards, "I somehow knew our wedding day would end up like this." She looked around and sighed. "At least they avoided the cliché of arriving during the ceremony."

The wedding venue had made sense at the time. No one would suspect Tony Stark of being capable of getting married in a landlocked Southern state, despite the large swathe of Potts relatives still living there. The real advantage was that Stark Industries owned private land there, via two shell companies. Of course, the entire world would probably be looking at the area and the connection would already be on Twitter, given the massive spaceship that had just landed.

"We have about fifteen minutes before a very angry Secretary Ross turns up," Rhodey called out from a few feet away, where he'd been speaking low and urgently into a cellphone. "We need to get Banner out of here and do something about the fact we have a few thousand freakishly strong aliens claiming asylum in rural Oklahoma. And then we _oh my god why is Loki here._ "

\--

Pepper had negotiated the lease of the land for a dollar to the Avengers Initiative with a glass of champagne in one hand whilst still wearing her wedding gown, followed up by immediate statements that Asgardians were technically refugees and as aliens did not come under the auspices of the Sokovia Accords. She had never looked so beautiful. "I don't deserve you," Tony had told her.

"I know," she had said, her smile dazzling.

They had then promptly packed up, hauled Bruce on to a private plane and flown back to New York. Thor had attempted to explain the last two years; Tony had tried the same. After Loki laughed uproariously at Tony's explanation of exactly why Steve was missing, Vision obtrusively placed himself next to the trickster god, who had stared for a moment and promptly gone silent. "Yes, I thought you might recognise me in the end," Vision had said, and had then remained a serene but constant shadow to the now-sullen Loki.

The rest of the flight had been at least a touch more productive. The emergency session at the UN was already scheduled by the time they touched down.

"You treat me with dishonour, Secretary Ross," Thor rumbled. "You do know that I am the king of my people now the Allfather is dead?"

"Well, your Highness-" and Tony could detect the sneer in Ross's tone, "we don't recognise kings here in the United States. There's also the fact you claim you're not covered by the Sokovia Accords, and deny all knowledge of the whereabouts of Banner."

"The last ping we had for his quinjet was in the ocean off Fiji," Tony interjected quickly.

"You know that a plane crash isn't enough to kill that beast," Ross said darkly. "I have information he was seen with the refugees."

Thor stood up slowly, pushing his chair back from the table with a screech. Tony had forgotten, over the years, just how large he really was. "I come with information to help you. I promised I would fight for Midgard, and I will. All I ask for now is that you give my people a chance to rebuild."

"They can have the Avengers land," Tony interjected. "I'll pay to feed them."

Ross glowered for a moment. "If I hear anything - _anything_ \- about aliens rampaging, there will be consequences."

"You think I cannot answer for the actions of my people?" Thor scoffed. "We have an accord. I will speak now with your United Nations assembly."

He strode out for a moment, cape billowing behind him. At the doorway he stopped and turned back for a moment. "Also, you negotiate poorly. I intended to buy the land with the gold that remains from our treasury, but now I shall work with friend Stark."

As Ross spluttered, Tony shot him a quick grin and walked out with Thor. "This is why everyone loves you the best, Point Break."

"I know," Thor said beatifically.


	2. building and breaking

_chapter 2 - building and breaking_

"There is a group of men approaching with evil in their hearts," Heimdall said calmly. Thor had left him with Valkyrie to start the rebuilding from the scraps of the ship and other material they'd picked up on the way; enough of the craftspeople of Asgard had survived. Asgard would be rebuilt. Heimdall stood guard on a small hill, observing those who passed to and fro. Valkyrie - she tolerated the name now - often stood with him.

Now, a small group approached the edges of the land. The only entrance not guarded by wards was through a small copse of trees and the group had stopped their vehicles on the very edge, with perhaps twenty men now standing near the treeline. Valkyrie gave Heimdall a lazy smile. "More mortals who feel we are stealing their homeland?"

"There is... something else," Heimdall said. "We should go together."

"What, you think I can't handle them?"

Heimdall gave a small smile. "Perhaps I should get to know our neighbours too."

Valkyrie shrugged. "Come on then," she said, and together they walked down the lookout hill and through the small copse. They had looked hopeful, but their faces shifted to something more ugly when Heimdall and Valkyrie strode towards them.

"We're here to join Thor," one of them called out, striding towards the front. He wasn't the leader of the group - the way the men were stood subtly indicated where the real power lay, and it wasn't with this man - but he clearly thought himself important.

"The King of Asgard is not here," Heimdall said calmly. "We protect our realm."

"We can, you know, take a message," Valkyrie suggested. Heimdall worked hard not to glare. Her rough habits from Sakaar had yet to wash away.

"We are the Sons of Odin," the man proclaimed. "We follow the teachings of Odin and Thor, and want to join your pure homeland."

"You're definitely not that," Valkyrie said flatly. "Met them. Knew Odin. Not a lot of teaching going on. What do you really want?"

There was stirring towards the back of the group, and a small, well-dressed man stepped forward. "You seem like reasonable folk, so you'll see our point. We don't want to speak to the slaves, we want to speak to the leaders. If Thor is away, like you say, we will speak to those left in command."

This time, Valkyrie and Heimdall did exchange glances. "Asgard has no slaves," Heimdall said flatly. "It did once. It was to our shame. We were never amongst their number. I guard Asgard in the absence of our King and you shall not gain entrance."

"Come now," the smaller man said, sounding nothing more than a merchant trying to entreat one to purchase unwanted goods. "They treat you well. That's good. We all want that. But let us in to speak to those really in charge, hm?" He turned to his followers and Heimdall knew his first guess had been true; this was the real leader here. "Shall we just head straight in, boys?"

"We ain't afraid of people like you!" the first man crowed, his small beard trembling atop his round face. He pulled out his weapon, followed immediately by those surrounding him. Heimdall sighed deeply and drew his sword.

Valkyrie smiled. There was no humour in it. "That was really stupid, so you know."

After the battle was done - and calling it such was shameful, the men fought weakly and with no honour - Heimdall crouched down in the dirt where the one who thought himself a leader now lay, his fine clothes crumpled. "I know what you believe Asgard to have been. It was not perfect and did great evil. Perhaps we forgot that. We never divided our own people on something as petty as their skin, though."

The man looked back balefully, eye swelling from Valkyrie's early blow to his face. He tried to sit up, the task made more difficult by his bindings. "We will follow the teachings of Odin for a pure homeland!" he wheezed.

Heimdall rocked back on his heels. Valkyrie leaned over. "These teachings. They anything to do with these 'Vikings' I've been reading about on the way over? The people who saw us when we still visited Midgard?" The leader glared. "Okay, I'll say that's a yes. Well, they got a lot wrong. I'm the last of the Valkyries. I can assure you, I don't sing. Also, the guy who tied you up? That's Heimdall."

The man spat. "You're a liar. Heimdall is the whitest of the gods."

"That translation was made by an idiot like you. 'Noblest' does not mean 'palest'," Valkyrie said with a sneer.

"That... is not... Heimdall!" the man wheezed, growing a particularly alarming purple.

Heimdall looked at him for a moment, truly looking at him. Then he looked to the distance - such a small distance, over only one land of one planet - and smiled. "The law enforcement of this land are coming in retribution for your actions on your journey here, Richard."

"Anyone could have told you my name," the man said sullenly.

"No one needed to," Heimdall said flatly. "I shall leave you here for your own lawkeepers, you hold no interest to Asgard."

"Also, if you come back, I will just keep on punching you," Valkyrie added.

The man's wheezes grew faint as they walked back towards the settlement. "You think I am the most noble of the gods, then," said Heimdall conversationally.

"You did good work. Don't get cocky."

"Hey. Hey, guys?" On the other side of the treeline, Korg was ambling towards Valkyrie and Heimdall from the direction of the settlement. "Someone said there was some fighting going on, you need something? I know I'm not meant to leave, but I could help? Maybe?"

Heimdall smiled widely. "Next time someone wants to talk about the purity of Asgard, Korg, we are _definitely_ sending you." Behind Korg, there was the noise of knives. "And you, Miek."


	3. a discovery (followed by others)

_chapter 3 - a discovery (followed by others)_

Darcy should have known, really. The request from Stark Industries for her to act as a consultant should have been suspicious. Not for Jane, not as Jane's assistant, but for Darcy Lewis herself to come and act as a consultant on an urgent project, with her unique knowledge and security clearance level. She'd been flattered even before she got to the part of the request offering a ridiculously large one-off payment. She should have known that this sort of thing never worked out well for the intern.

The money, however, was already earmarked to pay off too big a chunk of her student loan for Darcy to stick to her principles and stride out once she found out exactly who had requested her unique skillset. Instead, after the briefing she had haughtily sat down at her provided workstation and started to work furiously on setting up search strings.

"So," Thor said, after the silence had become uncomfortable. "How is Jane?"

Darcy wheeled around from the computer screen. "Oh no you don't," she said, shaking a finger at him. "I am totally Team Jane in this and you are not wheedling information out of me." She spun about around, turning her back on Thor.

"I am the King of Asgard," Thor said, sounding offended. "I do not... wheedle."

"Yes you do, you're all puppy dog eyes and big muscles," Darcy said with a sniff. "I am here because Tony Stark has offered me an unreasonably large amount of money to come and monitor social media for sparkly powerful gems. Don't get me involved in your relationships, dude."

The silence stretched on for another few moments. Darcy sighed and wheeled her chair around, slower this time. "Jane is fine. She misses you. She still thinks it's the right decision, given that you went off questing rather than spending any time together."

"It was a mutual decision," Thor protested.

"Yeah, based on your actions!" She dropped her voice and threw her hands to the sky, gesticulating wildly. "'O, my love, I must quest amongst the stars to prevent the apocalypse but alas, I can never take the time to drop in and check how you are doing! Verily!'"

"I... don't sound like that."

"Yeah, okay, _King of Asgard_ ," Darcy scoffed. Her voice softened. "Sorry about your dad. And, er, your eye."

"So am I." Thor paused. "Jane... is well, though?" He held up his hands. "No details! Surely I am allowed to check that she fares heartily enough."

Darcy tried to glare and gave up. "She fares well enough, yes. She even pays me now. I'm official. She's not moping about and waiting for you, and that's probably a good thing."

Darcy's computer made a ping, and she turned around, frowning. Thor leaned forward. "What was that noise? Is that a good noise?"

"Depends on your view of good..." Darcy muttered, distracted. "I didn't expect to get so many definite hits so early on. You said there might be one of these stone things that had to do with time?"

"The Time Stone, yes. It was last tracked to Midgard millennia ago."

"Magic time stone, check." Darcy frowned and pushed her glasses up her nose. "Well, there's some weird time reports and signatures from Hong Kong from about a year ago. I'd ignore it normally but people keep talking quite specifically about magic and their memories not matching?"

Thor stood up. "Strange," he said grimly.

"Yeah, it is, but... wait, where are you going?"

Thor turned around at the door. "I knew that you would succeed at this task. Keep searching. I'm going to see a wizard. And... thank you, for being Jane's friend."

"Twitter and friendship, they're my best talents," Darcy said with a nod, and wheeled back to her workstation. Once Thor had definitely left the room, she whipped out her phone. _okay he really misses you_ she texted swiftly. Seconds later her phone bleeped.

_good!_

Darcy carefully watched the three dots bubble at the bottom of her screen. A moment later _i kind of miss him too. take care of him._

Darcy decided not to mention where Thor had said he was going, and started to add references to wizards to her search strings.

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback is, as always, deeply welcomed and warms the cockles of my heart.
> 
> Verily.


End file.
